Performance Management

About 3 years ago, Simeon’s Pivot Resources carried out a research on Performance Management and we are now using the knowledge we gained and the research to help our clients.

The research revealed that there is actually a considerable knowledge about the term Performance Management amongst Human Resource personnel but only a few actually practice Performance Management as they usually mistaken it for Performance Appraisal. So let us take the next few lines to tell you about performance management in its simplest form, why you need it and how you can deploy it in your organization.

Why do you need Performance Management? You need it because “what does not get measured does not get managed and what does not get managed does not grow and obviously what does not grow eventually dies”. So how come it is not generally used to grow performance in businesses? It’s simply because it sounds complex. In this article we will demystify it and you will see how simple it can be.

Performance Management in its simplest form is about managing the performance of an employee in such a way that results in continuous improved performance. By definition Performance Management (PM) can be described as a process of planning, monitoring and reviewing employee performance. (3 Simple Stages)

When you practice Performance Management, you will be able to identify what each person is supposed to achieve well beyond job descriptions, the performance of each person, also measure what each person is doing and eventually make necessary corrections.

There are three stages in Performance Management and we will discuss it below.

Stage 1: Planning

In the planning stage, a superior must have a meeting with a subordinate at the beginning of an operational period and discuss expectations with the sub. In that meeting, the superior must state in clear terms what is expected to be achieved by the sub, we can call this the Goal. That goal must align with the Strategic Goal of the organization, it must align with the role, ability and job descriptions of the sub. The goals must be S.M.A.R.T. meaning it must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-Bound. If possible each task expected to be carried out by the sub must be clearly written out with the step by step processes that will lead to the successful deployment of such task.

In this stage, the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) must be identified. Key performance Indicators are simply those activities, reports, and or results you will see daily, weekly, monthly to determine whether an employee is performing or not. The KPIs must not only be identified, it must also be shared with the sub, understood and accepted by the Sub. An example of KPI for an Admin staff can be “Prompt repayment of DSTV subscription”.

Now every KPI must have a “pointer”, the pointer is what shows you that a KPI is achieved or not, so the pointer in this case will be “scrambled channels”. (I’m sure you know this can be embarrassing in an office). It means that once you see the channels are scrambled then the Admin staff has underperformed.

Another important attribute of the planning stage is to identify “Metrics” for measurement. Metrics are forms of measuring the performance. So in this case we can use percentages, meaning the payment of DSTV or all monthly reoccurring payments can take up 10 per-cent of an employees’ overall performance for a month; and so if DSTV is not paid for, then it’s 0 percent for that task.

This can be repeated for every task required to be performed by that employee to make up 100 percent. With the planning stage concluded it means we have identified what an employee is meant to do, how we will know if it has been done and how to measure the performance in order to place the employee on a rating. The result of this after a while can lead to training, promotion, termination, transfer, increase in Salary, demotion etc.

In the next stage in Performance Management which is MONITORING would be discussed in the Part 2. Without this stage the first stage is a waste of time.

For more enquires on Performance Management and how we can help you set up a Performance Management System in your organization please contact us on hr@simeonspivot.com or call +2348096303933